Reviews

I related personally to this film. I have behaved like Colm, turning away friends when I felt I had to. Basically, as I saw it, Colm is an artist, a thinker, a creative. Padraic is not. Padraic is an ordinary guy, known for how nice he is. He also is an innocent in many ways, but as the film progresses, we see how people can change and adapt to whom and what impacts upon them.

As Colm has an existential crisis, wanting to be more creative and add meaning to his somewhat drab existence as he ages, he decides that hanging out with his good friend Padraic is a waste of time. But Padraic surprises everyone by how persistent he is. In fact, his persistence show how both innocent and how marginally intelligent he is. Even after Colm threatens to harm himself if Padraic doesn't back off, Padraic keeps on.

The only problem I had with the characters and their actions are that they were a tad unrealistic. The film went from realism to metaphoric, i.e., about the last third of it involved actions made by the main characters just to move the plot along. Colm chopping off his fingers and then Padraic not only changing himself but drastically so in order to do what he does by the end of the film was hard to believe within the context of the earlier parts of the film.

That said, it was still an excellent film. The acting and the script were great, notwithstanding what I said above. It's a movie that gets you to think and even has a few humorous moments.

I gave True Things 10 stars because of Ruth Wilson's acting and because of the excellent script. It's about a few phenomena that many women will be all too familiar with. Ruth Wilson plays Kate, a woman in her thirties who appears to suffer from not knowing what she wants out of life along with a healthy dose of depression mixed with low self-esteem and loneliness. She works as a bureaucrat behind a desk, a job gotten for her by her close holier-than-thou friend, Alison. Early in the film, a client sits down across from Kate, wanting to apply for benefits. I'm not sure that his name is ever given; he's simply referred to throughout the film as "Blond" because of his bleached hair. Blond has recently finished a jail bid and needs an income. Kate becomes infatuated with and attracted to Blond and they start having clandestine meetings for some hot sex, the kind that presumably has no strings attached.

As Kate gets more addicted to sex with Blond the rest of her life falls apart bit by bit. No, there's nothing new here, but as said above, Ruth Wilson's acting brings a freshness to a personality type with emotions that can be hard to watch. One scene stands out: she hasn't seen Blond for several days and she finally gets to confront him. He's losing patience and she's losing her mind. He asks her, "Kate, what do you want from me?" In a wee, sad voice she says, "I want to be your girlfriend." He replies, "How old are you, 12?" The truth is in that moment she actually could be 12.

As the film goes on and Kate's emotional stability goes right down the toilet along with her other drunken body fluids, it's again painful to watch. But the directing, too, is excellent and the film is organized in such a way as to enable sensitive viewers to not become too overwhelmed.

I really don't like adding spoilers but I want to mention a scene in Spain where Kate and Blond have gone to attend Blond's sister's wedding. These scenes are interesting because of Kate and Blond's relationship: though they're supposed to be a couple, they're hardly together. What's happened is that Kate has begun to lose interest in Blond. The scene where she sees him and he's wearing preppy clothes and talks about wanting to get married and have a family is the symbolic last nail in the coffin of Kate's dwindling feelings for him. Where did her bad-boy ex-con lover go? Who's this preppy nerd who's taken his place?

In the final scene Kate is in a taxi riding along a beautiful Spanish coastline with the sun shining brilliantly and the breeze blowing her hair back. With a huge smile and look on her face that says, "That's all behind me now, and I'm riding forward with Hope and Happiness, to live my future to the fullest!" We share her relief that she's been given another chance and so there's hope for us, too.

This is the first film I've been inspired to review in months. At the end I was surprised to learn that it was over two hours long.

As I didn't know much about "Invisible Life" prior to watching it, I was fully engrossed as the plot revealed itself from the start until the unexpected ending. I really thought that the sisters, who through childhood and adolescence were as close as identical twins and then separated, would find each other during the prime of their lives.

But no, the circumstances and decisions of each perpetuated their separation and each to live her own life without the love and involvement of the other.

This film is a tragedy. Ultimately, it's about how lives can be ruined by the domination, oppression, ignorance, and cruelty of those in control. Any person who is the subject of conditions like this can relate to the two sisters who managed to find moments of happiness despite their underlying and ongoing sadness and trauma.

Most minority groups demonstrate "resilience" and adapt to the conditions of servitude and subordination they're born into, but a film like this in its fine acting, directing and writing, give details that show just how heart-wrenching their lives truly are. This film is magnificent in how intensely this was accomplished.

The best thing about 'Like Sunday, Like Rain' is that it portrays what is basically a love story between an adult woman and a twelve year old boy and doesn't sexualize it. By the end of the film I was impressed that the writer and director did not go down that road. In light of that, I really enjoyed watching a connection between two people that could be described as love without the influence of lust. Even when Eleanor and Reggie visited Eleanor's family, I held my breath, waiting to see if any of them would broach the subject. None of them did. In a way, the subject of sexuality was both opened and closed early on by Reggie's friend who, when speaking to Reggie, referred to Eleanor as "his hot nanny." And Reggie dismissed the comment.

That said, I have to admit I was kind of disappointed by the ending though I understand the rationale for it. It's practical and clean. There is a break between the characters, but each of them is left better off by the relationship by solidifying their own relationships with their creativity. I guess because I so enjoyed the love aspect, I thought there could have been a reference to the future, e.g., one of them could have said, let's get together in ten years. Or, after they each go their own way, there could have been a screen that said, "Ten Years Later" and then a scene in the future in which they bump into each other on a NYC street (or wherever).

Then again, a sequel is most definitely implicated.